The Enneagram Tritype - Personality Types
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The concept of the Enneagram Tritype has recently caught my attention as another great way of explaining subtle but surprising differences among individuals of the same type, and also a wonderful way of expanding and diversifying the description of personality. This idea originally belonged to Oscar Ichazo, and was afterwards studied and further developed by Katherine and David Fauvre.What is the tritype?Theory says that we do not make use of only one single Enneagram type, but of actually three of them – one in each triad: the Heart Triad (2,3,4), the Head Triad (5,6,7) and the Gut Triad (8,9,1). This means we have a preferred coping strategy in each Centre and our personality is thus tridimensional to an extent. While we basically use our main type (and main Centre) the most, we will occasionally employ different strategies and coping methods belonging to the other two types (and Centres) in our tritype. The order in which we engage these and their prevalence in our thoughts and behavior will decide the order in which they appear in the tritype.For example if someone's main type is 7 (in the Head triad), but they also identify quite a lot with a 2 (from the Heart centre) and sometimes with a 9 (in the Gut triad), then their tritype will probably be 7-2-9. However, remember that in the tritype you can't have two types belonging to the same triad (you cannot be a 5-6-8 or a 2-5-3). How can I determine my tritype?In order to proceed with determining your tritype, you have to first be very sure about what your basic type is, and which instinctual variant is dominant in your case (knowing your instinctual stacking would be best). Only after these two aspects of your personality are very clear to you, you can move on to assess and discover your tritype. Otherwise it would be pointless - tritype cannot be established if we don't know our main type, and if we take a guess, it won't do us much good or help us in many ways.Tritype can be achieved through self-observation and sometimes through testing (although the first method is more reliable). It's practically the same way you did with your basic type. Think about which type you tend to identify with more in the Heart Centre, then in the Thinking Centre and finally the Gut Centre – observe yourself for a longer period of time and don't be in a hurry. Read as much as you can about each type so you are clear about what makes them different. Try to get it right and be certain when you choose. Also notice to what extent these three types can be found in your personality and order them according to that (from the most prevalent - the basic type, to the least manifest - the third). It often happens that we make sensibly less use of one of the Centres and deciding on our preferred type in that particular Triad can be quite challenging: all three types seem so foreign to us or at least so undifferentiated that we can't make a proper assessment. Time can be a good ally in finally deciding, so give yourself plenty of it. Sometimes, because personality is very dynamic and continuously changing, it is possible that the last two types in the tritype could change or fluctuate in intensity over long periods of time. This is more likely to happen with the third one, which is less often employed. But it is just as possible that they will become more pronounced and better defined, shedding more light on an initially ambiguous typing.You can also use Enneagram tests to help you figure out or confirm your tritype – a simple free test that shows you the scores for all 9 types is good enough. You can easily see which type in each triad has a higher score. You can also estimate what is the order in which you use each Centre, by adding the scores of the belonging types and comparing the sums.There is as well a special test that will determine your tritype. It costs 10$ and I think it is well worth the try: The Enneacards Test.How is the tritype helpful? The tritype is very helpful when it comes to explaining differences between people belonging to the same Enneagram type: it broadens our understanding of the Enneastyle archetypes and it reduces stereotyping. It helps us understand more about our personality and that of others and it allows for finer distinctions within each type.For example, a friendlier, more personable 5-2-9 will be notceably different from a rather temperamental 5-8-4 and they both will be quite different from a more rigid and practical 5-1-3. They are all still basically 5s, but it's the little things that set them all a bit apart. The same stands true for the rest of the types as well. Each person is not only differentiated by their main type (9 possibilities), their wing (9x2=18 possibilities), their dominant instinctual variant (18x3=54), the stacking of the instinctual variants (54x2=108), but also their preferred types in each Centre – the tritype (108x18=1,944 possibilities). 1,944 different kinds of people – this is hardly stereotyping.In a future article, I will also try to briefly describe each tritype in light of the particular flavour it gives to the main type.Tritype DescriptionsTritypes for type OneTritypes for type Five 
INTP said… Hi Mizmar,I'm glad you're following.I think I'll start posting the tritype descriptions sometime next week. July 29, 2009 at 11:13 AM Jonathan Erdman said… Hey there!Just found your blog. Excellent. I will track it.A fellow five with a four wing. You are my comrade. Cheers.I have not heard of the Tritype, so I will have to think more about that concept and see where I fall.....I imagine since I have a four wing that I would go 5-4 to start out with......not sure where to go in the gut triad, though.....hhhhmmmm....maybe a One. My Father is a one, and I've always thought that his influence was strong, perhaps making me a five with some idealistic streaks.Are you planning to do a detailed tritype analysis of Fives?Jon August 27, 2009 at 9:35 AM INTP said… Hey! Cheers to you as well and thank you for following.Yes, I'm planning to do tritype descriptions for all types, Fives included. Lately I've been rather busy with my job, but I will get back to posting as soon as I can - I want to finish all the descriptions this fall. August 29, 2009 at 10:20 AM lorentide said… I really enjoyed your tritype description of Fives- I haven't seen it anywhere else. I'm a 5>4>1, and the description was quite true. December 2, 2009 at 11:00 AM Anonymous said… Please oh please write the 4 tritype profile! You write with a gilded pen. December 5, 2009 at 2:03 PM INTP said… The type 4 tritype profiles are the next ones I'll be posting. However there might be a little delay as I'm rather busy with the new Enneagram test. I think I'll publish them no later than January though. December 8, 2009 at 1:03 PM AnaDrol said… Great post. love the angle you are taking on the subject. I can hardly wait for the tritypes descriptions. Ann November 24, 2010 at 12:13 AM Post a Comment 
I've recently come across a really interesting article that promotes a different hypothesis of how Enneagram types form during childhood and I thought I should present it briefly on the blog. It's commonly accepted that the Enneagram type has both a genetic component and an environmental component and it's their interaction that decides the final typology. This theory states that there are three major innate orientations of the personality and that we are all born with one of them prevalent over the other two. Furthermore, it suggests that each of the nine Enneagram types is a consequence of the way in which the child's preferred inborn orientation (the hereditary component) interacts with the one that their parent - or main caretaker - has towards them in the forming years (the environmental component). Three Basic Orientations The three orientations are an expression of the Law of Three, on which the entire Enneagram concept is based. This law stat... Read more 
INTP I'm a psychology lover, with a strong interest in the Enneagram and Myers Briggs personality systems. Visit profile
The Enneagram Tritype
The concept of the Enneagram Tritype has recently caught my attention as another great way of explaining subtle but surprising differences among individuals of the same type, and also a wonderful way of expanding and diversifying the description of personality. This idea originally belonged to Oscar Ichazo, and was afterwards studied and further developed by Katherine and David Fauvre.What is the tritype?Theory says that we do not make use of only one single Enneagram type, but of actually three of them – one in each triad: the Heart Triad (2,3,4), the Head Triad (5,6,7) and the Gut Triad (8,9,1). This means we have a preferred coping strategy in each Centre and our personality is thus tridimensional to an extent. While we basically use our main type (and main Centre) the most, we will occasionally employ different strategies and coping methods belonging to the other two types (and Centres) in our tritype. The order in which we engage these and their prevalence in our thoughts and behavior will decide the order in which they appear in the tritype.For example if someone's main type is 7 (in the Head triad), but they also identify quite a lot with a 2 (from the Heart centre) and sometimes with a 9 (in the Gut triad), then their tritype will probably be 7-2-9. However, remember that in the tritype you can't have two types belonging to the same triad (you cannot be a 5-6-8 or a 2-5-3). How can I determine my tritype?In order to proceed with determining your tritype, you have to first be very sure about what your basic type is, and which instinctual variant is dominant in your case (knowing your instinctual stacking would be best). Only after these two aspects of your personality are very clear to you, you can move on to assess and discover your tritype. Otherwise it would be pointless - tritype cannot be established if we don't know our main type, and if we take a guess, it won't do us much good or help us in many ways.Tritype can be achieved through self-observation and sometimes through testing (although the first method is more reliable). It's practically the same way you did with your basic type. Think about which type you tend to identify with more in the Heart Centre, then in the Thinking Centre and finally the Gut Centre – observe yourself for a longer period of time and don't be in a hurry. Read as much as you can about each type so you are clear about what makes them different. Try to get it right and be certain when you choose. Also notice to what extent these three types can be found in your personality and order them according to that (from the most prevalent - the basic type, to the least manifest - the third). It often happens that we make sensibly less use of one of the Centres and deciding on our preferred type in that particular Triad can be quite challenging: all three types seem so foreign to us or at least so undifferentiated that we can't make a proper assessment. Time can be a good ally in finally deciding, so give yourself plenty of it. Sometimes, because personality is very dynamic and continuously changing, it is possible that the last two types in the tritype could change or fluctuate in intensity over long periods of time. This is more likely to happen with the third one, which is less often employed. But it is just as possible that they will become more pronounced and better defined, shedding more light on an initially ambiguous typing.You can also use Enneagram tests to help you figure out or confirm your tritype – a simple free test that shows you the scores for all 9 types is good enough. You can easily see which type in each triad has a higher score. You can also estimate what is the order in which you use each Centre, by adding the scores of the belonging types and comparing the sums.There is as well a special test that will determine your tritype. It costs 10$ and I think it is well worth the try: The Enneacards Test.How is the tritype helpful? The tritype is very helpful when it comes to explaining differences between people belonging to the same Enneagram type: it broadens our understanding of the Enneastyle archetypes and it reduces stereotyping. It helps us understand more about our personality and that of others and it allows for finer distinctions within each type.For example, a friendlier, more personable 5-2-9 will be notceably different from a rather temperamental 5-8-4 and they both will be quite different from a more rigid and practical 5-1-3. They are all still basically 5s, but it's the little things that set them all a bit apart. The same stands true for the rest of the types as well. Each person is not only differentiated by their main type (9 possibilities), their wing (9x2=18 possibilities), their dominant instinctual variant (18x3=54), the stacking of the instinctual variants (54x2=108), but also their preferred types in each Centre – the tritype (108x18=1,944 possibilities). 1,944 different kinds of people – this is hardly stereotyping.In a future article, I will also try to briefly describe each tritype in light of the particular flavour it gives to the main type.Tritype DescriptionsTritypes for type OneTritypes for type Five Comments
Mizmar said… I look forward to your description of the tritypes. I've also recently come to suspect that I'm some sort of 5-4-9 hybrid. July 28, 2009 at 11:40 AM INTP said… Hi Mizmar,I'm glad you're following.I think I'll start posting the tritype descriptions sometime next week. July 29, 2009 at 11:13 AM Jonathan Erdman said… Hey there!Just found your blog. Excellent. I will track it.A fellow five with a four wing. You are my comrade. Cheers.I have not heard of the Tritype, so I will have to think more about that concept and see where I fall.....I imagine since I have a four wing that I would go 5-4 to start out with......not sure where to go in the gut triad, though.....hhhhmmmm....maybe a One. My Father is a one, and I've always thought that his influence was strong, perhaps making me a five with some idealistic streaks.Are you planning to do a detailed tritype analysis of Fives?Jon August 27, 2009 at 9:35 AM INTP said… Hey! Cheers to you as well and thank you for following.Yes, I'm planning to do tritype descriptions for all types, Fives included. Lately I've been rather busy with my job, but I will get back to posting as soon as I can - I want to finish all the descriptions this fall. August 29, 2009 at 10:20 AM lorentide said… I really enjoyed your tritype description of Fives- I haven't seen it anywhere else. I'm a 5>4>1, and the description was quite true. December 2, 2009 at 11:00 AM Anonymous said… Please oh please write the 4 tritype profile! You write with a gilded pen. December 5, 2009 at 2:03 PM INTP said… The type 4 tritype profiles are the next ones I'll be posting. However there might be a little delay as I'm rather busy with the new Enneagram test. I think I'll publish them no later than January though. December 8, 2009 at 1:03 PM AnaDrol said… Great post. love the angle you are taking on the subject. I can hardly wait for the tritypes descriptions. Ann November 24, 2010 at 12:13 AM Post a Comment Popular posts from this blog
PSTypes Enneagram Test
This is a new free Enneagram test I have developed. It has 171 items and it will take you about 20 minutes to complete. The accuracy of the final version of the test is rather high, considering the data so far. The sample consisted of 198 people that had previously decided on their Enneagram type (of course, all 9 Enneatypes were represented in the sample). T he highest score indicated the correct type in 82,6% of the cases . The main type was among the first two highest scores in 95,6% of the cases, and among the first three in 97,2% of the cases. I will make updates of the test's accuracy as I gather more data, but I don't expect radical changes to the figures. Part I: Selection Check all the traits that you think apply to you: Pragmatic Aesthetic Detached Clumsy Spontaneous Powerful Indulgent Nit-picking Sentimental Self-promoting Capricious Reserved Alert Joker Vigorous Patient Principled Demonstrative Go-getter Dramatic Receptive Ingenious Rigorous Warm-hearted E... Read moreEnneagram Tritype Descriptions: Type Five
This is a list of descriptions for all the Enneagram Tritypes of type Five: it explores the flavours that each tritype configuration can bring to this type. Therefore they are by no means complete depictions of type Five and must be viewed as additions and orientations of the main characteristics of the leading type (which will remain fundamental). If you are a type Five and have decided on your tritype as well, feel free to leave a comment on how you experience it and how well the specific description fits you. There is always room for improvement. 5-2-1 : these Fives enjoy using their knowledge and expertise in the benefit of others and are typically attracted to humanitarian causes. They are more altruistic and generous than other Fives and also more social, involved and controlling. They want to help other people and usually do it by teaching them how to help themselves – they can make good teachers. However they have some trouble with acknowledging their own problems... Read moreChilhood Scenarios for Enneatypes: Law of Three
I've recently come across a really interesting article that promotes a different hypothesis of how Enneagram types form during childhood and I thought I should present it briefly on the blog. It's commonly accepted that the Enneagram type has both a genetic component and an environmental component and it's their interaction that decides the final typology. This theory states that there are three major innate orientations of the personality and that we are all born with one of them prevalent over the other two. Furthermore, it suggests that each of the nine Enneagram types is a consequence of the way in which the child's preferred inborn orientation (the hereditary component) interacts with the one that their parent - or main caretaker - has towards them in the forming years (the environmental component). Three Basic Orientations The three orientations are an expression of the Law of Three, on which the entire Enneagram concept is based. This law stat... Read more 
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